A Myerstown mother of five was sentenced Wednesday to Lebanon County prison for one to two years for allowing her boyfriend to physically abuse and neglect their children.

Jessie L. Flickinger, 35, of 212 W. Main Ave., was sentenced to prison and fined $500 on five counts of endangering the welfare of children. She was sentenced to an additional two years probation after finishing her prison sentence and fined $600 for five counts of recklessly endangering another person and one of intimidation of a person from reporting abuse. For the first six months that Flickinger is on parole, she will be under house arrest, Charles ordered.

She pleaded guilty April 19.

Their five children, who ranged in age from 2 to 15 at the time the criminal charges were filed, were denied food, locked in their room with a lock on the outside and forced to stay in the room that was contaminated by urine and feces because they were not allowed out to use the bathroom.

Christopher Conner, 41, the father of the children, was sentenced Feb. 3 to six to 12 years in state prison for neglecting and physically abusing their children over a six-month period in 2014.

“You allowed your children to be tortured by a monster. You facilitated that,” Judge Bradford H. Charles told Flickinger before sentencing her.

He said she was more concerned about her relationship with Christopher Conner, the father of the children, than her responsibility as a mother.

“This monster hit, punched and kicked these children,” Charles said referring to Conner.

“You knew without a shadow of a doubt what was being done to these kids was wrong and you did nothing to protect them,” Charles said.

As a condition of her sentence, Charles prohibited Flickinger’s children from living with her for the first year that she is out of prison. He also ordered her to attend parenting classes.

She was also prohibited from having any contact with Conner during her sentence.

“This is not a situation where Jessie was an active participant,” said Chief Public Defender Brian Deiderick. Her role was passive, he said.

Flickinger has completed parenting classes and counseling at Domestic Violence Intervention, Deiderick said. He said Flickinger has had visits with her children that were supervised by the Lebanon County Children and Youth agency.

Two of Flickinger’s children wrote to the judge asking for leniency.

The Lebanon County Children and Youth Services agency is waiting to make a decision about Flickinger’s children until the outcome of this case, the public defender said.

Deiderick said Flickinger now recognizes that she should have taken steps to prevent Conner from abusing the children.

A relative who witnessed the abuse told investigators that the children were never allowed to have breakfast, and they were usually not fed dinner. The ate lunch at school.

Megan Ryland-Tanner, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, said it became obvious that domestic violence was going on inside Flickinger’s home.

“I don’t doubt she is a victim of domestic violence, but at the same time, she is a mother,” Ryland-Tanner said.

The prosecutor said she believes that Flickinger deserved to serve time in prison. County prison was the best option in the case because Flickinger had taken steps to turn her lfe around, Ryland-Tanner said.

The prosecutor said she did not believe that Flickinger was as culpable as Conner.

In a letter to the judge, Flickinger wrote that she met Conner when she was 14 and Conner was 20 years old. She had never been in a relationship before and was naïve and impressionable when someone older took an interest to her, she wrote in the letter that she provided to the Lebanon Daily News through her lawyer.

“I thought he had all the answers and would be the best thing to ever happen to me,” she wrote, adding he made her feel special.

A month after they met, she discovered she was pregnant and they moved in with his parents.

Her life began a downward spiral after that, according her letter. Conner controlled every aspect of her life until he was incarcerated. Conner picked her clothes and prohibited her from having friends, Flickinger wrote. She did not think that was unusual because she knew nothing different in her life. Conner told her that he was the only family she needed, she wrote.

Flickinger said her self worth deteriorated to the point that she believed Conner when Conner told her she deserved the physical abuse that she said he inflicted on her. When he lost his job, he punched her in the eye, she told the judge in the letter. When Conner was drunk or under the influence of drugs, he was worse, she stated in her letter.

“He would come home drunk and just punch, kick, pull my hair out for no reason. He was always sorry the next day,” Flickinger wrote in her letter.

She wrote that she believed their five children when they told her that Conner had not hit them.

“Of course they were too scared to tell me the truth,” Flickinger stated in her letter.

Once when she accused him of hitting the children, Flickinger said Conner hit her so hard that her head hit a wall and she passed out. Another time, when she was nine months pregnant with their last child, Conner punched her and gave her a black eye.

“I thought I was protecting my kids by taking all the abuse I did because he left them alone,” she wrote. Flickinger said she told her children to stay in their room to protect them from Conner’s abusiveness.

After months of therapy, parenting classes and Conner being sent to state prison, Flickinger said she now realizes her thinking was not right.

She wrote that she has a full-time job and she is working to rebuild her life

Flickinger, who said her children are her life, asked the judge for a combination of prison and house arrest so she can see her children.